Harry and the Pirates

Chapter 39

The King of Serpents and the Lord

"Shut your eyes! The Basilisk petrifies its prey by looking in their eyes!" shrieked Hermione. Along with the others, Harry squeezed his eyes tight shut. He could hear the huge reptile, slowly coming through the open mouth of the statue and landing on the floor of the Chamber. Riddle's laugh, high and shrill and insane, echoed off the walls. Someone whimpered. The Basilisk let out a long hiss.

"All together! Backs together! Wands out!" shouted Hermione. They all budged together, back-to-back, their wands out and ready to use. "All together now, start shooting every spell you know! Something might work!"

A thought struck Harry. "Hermione!" he yelled. "A basilisk is a reptile, right?"

"Yes! Basically, it's the King of Serpents! Its name comes from the Greek word for a king!"

"Good!" Harry raised his wand and screamed "Gelidus!" The atmosphere in the Chamber went perceptibly colder. "Everybody! Cast the strongest Freezing Charms you can! We can freeze that stinking snake! Snakes don't like it cold!" Harry hoped that was true of magical beasts, as well. He wished he had someone handy who would know. Still, chilling things down was the best bet they had.

Tom Riddle screamed in rage as they all raised their wands and chanted "Gelidus!" They ignored him, concentrating on throwing every bit of their power into the spell, and the temperature dropped and dropped and dropped. Harry still had his eyes tight shut, but he could hear that the snake was moving around less and less. He shivered, and then his whole body shook. He had been raised in the tropics, for all his British ancestry, and this cold thing was not on, as far as he was concerned!

"Bozhemoi! I'm freezing my…ears…off!" Dudley complained. Harry knew his cousin more than well enough to know that he'd originally intended to say something rather saltier than that, but had edited his complaint at the last second, probably for Luna's benefit. He dared to open one eye a crack, and saw the basilisk, curled up in the middle of the Chamber with its head tucked into the middle of its coils.

"It's safe! You can open your eyes!" They all opened their eyes, and gasped in wonder at the sight of the King of Serpents, huddled in a coil to hibernate. Its head was deep within its coils. The snake's scales and the walls of the Chamber glistened with ice crystals from the moisture in the air, and all of them shook with cold. "Blimey, I think it's ten below zero!" Nearby, Lockhart huddled in a small ball, shivering and whimpering with terror.

"You monster! You evildoer! How could you do such a thing to my noble pet, the creature Salazar Slytherin left in the school to rid it of the unworthy?" raged Tom. Reminded of the phantom's existence, the Slytherin contingent turned to face him.

"And who in Merlin's name are you to decide who's worthy?" purred Draco. "You damned ghoul, how dare you abuse and control my fiancee? I wish you were corporeal…I'd have you wearing your guts for an apron!"

"We're all Slytherins, Tom," Hermione said, shaking her head sadly at the folly of humanity. "We don't want the school to shut down. We like it. You're a menace to things, and we have to stop you."

"Basilisks don't care if someone's pureblooded or not, or whether someone is a 'blood traitor' or not, Tom," Luna pointed out, her voice as calm as always. "I have a very hard time believing that Salazar Slytherin, the greatest of all the Founders, wouldn't know that such a beast was as much a danger to those he wanted to keep around as to those he wanted to be shut of."

"Trying to reason with a ghost is like putting perfume and pretty lingerie on a corpse, Luna-moth," said Dudley, standing beside Luna protectively, his wand up and ready to fire spells at a moment's notice. "Pretty it up as you will, it's still a corpse. A stinking, decaying, horrible corpse! He's not worth talking to."

"Well, as soon as I finish sucking the life out of this little fool here, I'll be fully corporeal!" Tom laughed. He twirled a wand in one hand, one that Harry recognized as belonging rightfully to Pansy Parkinson. His smile was pure predator, and Harry thought involuntarily of Roanapur for a second. "She was such a good little dupe! I may even miss her…naah!"

Draco's eyes narrowed with anger. "Expelliarmus!" he yelled, waving his wand in the way Flitwick had taught them for the Disarming Charm, and the wand flew out of Tom's hand before he could do anything. Unfortunately, it landed near Lockhart, and the next thing they knew, Lockhart had grabbed it and was on his feet, facing them, his eyes wild and foam on his lips. He took deadly aim at Luna. Luna's eyes went very wide, and she raised her own wand to try to defend herself.

"Now I have you, you little swine! Ruin my reputation, will you? After I kill you, I'll make sure that my story's the only one told of what happened down here!" He raised his wand, and shrieked "Avada…"

"No! NO!" Dudley screamed. He pushed Luna to the floor, covering her with his body and firing a quick Tarantallegra at Lockhart to keep him off-balance. The training he had received in Flitwick's Furies served him well. His spell threw Lockhart off enough to disrupt his Killing Curse.

Along with the others, Harry was staring in horror at their teacher. He had no illusions any more about Lockhart, but seeing him attempt to murder a student was far above anything he had ever expected. Roanapur reflexes kicked in, and he fired a curse at Lockhart, who ducked and dodged it; the Tarantallegra had worn off, and phony or no, the ponce was in fine athletic trim.

The others' astonishment had changed to anger, and they all began firing curses, hexes and jinxes at Lockhart. Unfortunately, the phony did have some skills, and he threw up a Shield Charm that repelled what they could hit him with. And, what was worse, the room was warming back up with the energies their fight was giving off, and a stray spell hit the Basilisk, which stirred and seemed to come back to life!

"Hermione! Ron! Keep that damn snake on ice! The rest of you, keep on fighting Lockhart! We've got no choice but to take him down!" yelled Harry. He threw a Tickling Charm at Lockhart, while Dudley and Luna concentrated on slicking the chamber floor beneath the fraud's feet, hoping to force him off balance and make him fall. With one corner of his mind, he noted with approval that his cousin and his…girlfriend?… had clearly been paying close attention when he told of his and Hermione's adventures in their previous year. Keeping an opponent from getting to his feet was a good tactic, and he wanted to try it out sometime in Roanapur.

Draco cast his Serpensortia, startling the Defense professor. He'd clearly not run into such a spell before, and he recoiled instinctively as the huge snake coiled and hissed menacingly, raising its head to strike, before the cold of the chamber hit it. Ginny threw a Bat-Bogey Hex, one of her own specialties, and all of a sudden Lockhart was batting frantically at tiny green bats that flew out of his nose and fluttered in his face, distracting him. He lost his balance on the slippery floor, and fell down hard. That gave Harry an opening, and he yelled "Incarcerous!" A second later, Lockhart was tied up from his feet to his neck, wrapped in rope like an Egyptian mummy, and Pansy's wand was lying on the icy floor beside him. Harry stepped forward and picked it up. "You lose, you damned swindler!" he snarled. The look Lockhart gave him should have had him lying dead on the floor, but he shrugged it off. It wasn't the first time he'd been glared at by an expert.

Tom Riddle had stood back quietly, watching the combat. He now reminded them of his existence, clapping slowly and sardonically. "Very good, Harry Potter," he drawled. "Tell me…have you ever considered changing sides? I could use someone like you!"

"You expect me to follow you? You? A wanker who was beaten by a baby? A tosser I saw off last year, when I was nothing but a firstie?" Harry sneered. "Any position serving you is too low for me. I intend to run my own organization when I'm out of school. And blunderers like you won't be welcome, so don't come bawling for a job!" Beside him, Dudley nodded, supporting Harry as he always did.

Tom Riddle's mouth went tight at Harry's contemptous dismissal of his offer. "Well, once I'm corporeal again, we'll see who ends up in tears!" Reminded of Pansy's existence, Harry looked at her. She looked worse than she had, and now Harry noticed that she clutched a familiar-looking leather-bound book to her chest; she'd been curled on her side, and at first he hadn't seen it.

Something told Harry that the book was important, so he fired a blindingly-bright Light Charm, hoping to dazzle Riddle, and ducked forward to grab the book out of Pansy's hands. He successfully got his hands on it, but had forgotten that they'd slicked the floor. His feet slipped out from under him, and he landed heavily, partly on Pansy and partly on the floor, knocking the breath out of him. For a few minutes, all he could do was to struggle to breathe.

Tom Riddle was not slow to take advantage. Somehow, he got Harry's wand away from him; Harry never knew quite how. When he rolled over onto his back, gasping and sobbing for air, he found himself staring down the business end of his own wand. "Give over, Potter! It's the end of the road for you! Once again, Lord Voldemort wins!"

Harry fully expected to die. However, Riddle apparently wanted to play with his victims, and was willing to postpone full corporeality. He pointed Harry's wand at the Basilisk, and screamed a spell Harry didn't know. The room began to warm perceptibly, and the ice crystals that had formed melted off the walls, forming little puddles on the floor.

"The Basilisk!" screamed Ginny. "It's waking up!"

Sure enough, the warmth had restored the Basilisk to life. Harry remembered that the creature had been there for nearly a millenium, and had had to become adapted to periods of cold. Otherwise, it wouldn't have survived its first Scots winter. He had to do something! All he had to work with was the diary, which he still was clutching, so he threw it into the knot of his friends. "It's the diary!" he gasped. "It's the source of his power! We've got to destroy it!"

Ginny grabbed the book out of midair with one hand, and pointed her wand at it, screaming a curse. The book absorbed the spell, then threw it back, flying out of her hands and being caught by Luna Ginny was all but knocked off her feet, with her hair blown back and ash all over her face. She looked comically surprised. Meanwhile, the Basilisk was uncoiling, and soon would be back in the fight.

Tom was too busy to take much of an interest in his pet; he was throwing hexes and jinxes at Harry's friends as fast as he could, while they dodged and shielded themselves and did their best to return his fire. Whatever "Tom Riddle" was, Harry had to admit that he was a top-notch combat wizard. If we'd had him on our team at the Duelling Association, we'd have cleaned the other team's clocks, ran through Harry's mind.

Harry had recovered his breath, and gathered himself, springing at Riddle and doing his best to grab his wand out of the phantom's hand. He succeeded; as a phantom, Riddle was not nearly as physically strong as Harry was, and his experience on the streets of Roanapur had made him a very competent martial artist and street-fighter for one his age. Once he had his wand back, he scrambled back to his friends, to help them against the King of Serpents.

Luna had the diary in one hand, and was facing off against the Basilisk, her eyes scrunched shut against the deadly rays of its eyes. Unfortunately for her, she tripped over an irregularity in the floor and fell, her wand flying out of her hand as she tried to catch herself. Over her, the Basilisk hissed its triumph, rearing back its head and striking down, its huge fangs gleaming in the dim light. All poor Luna had was the diary, and she held it up in both hands as a pathetic final gesture of defense. Dudley gave a despairing scream.

The Basilisk's fang pierced clear through the diary, and an extraordinary thing happened. The diary began to bleed black ink, far more than anybody would expect. Behind Harry, Tom Riddle screamed, and Harry turned just in time to see him writhe in agony before disappearing. Once he was gone, Pansy stirred, her eyes opening.

"Draco? Draco, are you there?" she called out. Heedless of all else, Draco ran to his fiancee, cradling her in his arms. "Draco, I'm so sorry! That diary…it possessed me!" She began to grope around. "Where's my wand? And where are we?"

Harry had no time to watch this byplay. Dudley had run forward, dragging Luna backward, away from the Basilisk. Hissing its frustration, the great serpent drew back its head for another strike.

"Stop! Stop right now!" shouted Harry. To his amazement and delight, the King of Serpents halted its attack, looking over toward him. Harry squeezed his eyes shut.

"Harry, you can command it! You speak Parseltongue!" gasped Hermione. "Can you make it go back?"

"Let me try!" Keeping his eyes tight shut, Harry went on, in Parseltongue: "Go back, King of Serpents! Go back to your rest!"

"My rest? But, master, I hunger! I hunger! What may I eat?" The huge snake's tone was plaintive, and Harry could not but feel some sympathy. The poor thing had been locked up down here for nearly a millenium. No wonder it was hungry!

"If you refrain from paralyzing humans, I will see that you are fed. But now, I wish you to go back to your slumbers. Go now!"

With a resigned hiss, the Basilisk uncoiled, slithering past the terrified Slytherins and up into the hole it had come out of. Once it was gone, everybody sighed relief, opened their eyes and crowded around Pansy Parkinson. The girls chafed her wrists and checked her pulse; the Duelling Association's lessons had included some basic first aid.

Pansy was sobbing. "I didn't mean to! I didn't mean to! The diary…at first it was the best friend I'd ever had, but I had more and more blackouts, and when I figured out that the blackouts always happened when someone had been paralyzed, I tried to get rid of the diary! It…it wouldn't let me! It made me write those awful things on the wall, and open the passage to the Chamber!"

"It wasn't your fault," Hermione said, holding the other girl close as though they were dearest girlfriends instead of constant rivals. "That was You-Know-Who, you know. He's more powerful than any of us. Even as a phantom, we only beat him with a lot of luck."

"Too right," muttered Dudley, holding Luna close, as though he was afraid she would disappear. There was no chance of that, though; Luna was holding Dudley, and from the way they were looking at each other, Harry figured that they'd definitely bonded.

"Now, how do we get out of here?" muttered Ron. "And what do we do with him," pointing at Lockhart. The fraudulent Professor still had his eyes squinched tight shut, and he shivered, not all with cold. The friends looked at him with chilly, appraising eyes.

"Much as I'd like to leave him down here as Basilisk yummies," Harry decided, "we need him. Once we're out of here, I'll arrange for Hagrid to make deliveries every so often. If the Basilisk isn't hungry, it'll be less likely to go roaming 'round the school."

That plan met with general approval, and Hermione Levitated the bound Lockhart, towing him along behind her as they headed back the way they had come, a short time and a lifetime ago. Harry had his wand in one hand, and the remains of the diary in the other. Once they reached the place where they had come down, they looked up to see the silhouette of Professor Snape's head, peering down the shaft into the darkness.

"Professor! Can you get help to get us out of here?" called Ginny. "We're all right, and we've stopped the attacks!"

Snape audibly gasped with relief. "I shall summon assistance! You stay where you are!" Once the combined talents of the Hogwarts faculty had been brought into play, all of the party, and Lockhart, were back in the bathroom. At first, the teachers were surprised to see Lockhart among them, particularly disarmed and tied up, but a quick explanation sufficed for them to take custody of the errant teacher.

"Professor Dumbledore wishes to see you in his office, as soon as may be. Mr. and Mrs. Parkinson are there and they're frantic to see their daughter. And Lucius Malfoy is also there, wishing to know what's been happening." The friends trooped off to the Headmaster's office.

END Chapter 39